


Flattering Child, You Shall Know Me, See Why In Shadow I Hide

by creatureofhobbit



Category: Lost
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-08
Updated: 2018-10-08
Packaged: 2019-07-27 21:41:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 646
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16227875
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/creatureofhobbit/pseuds/creatureofhobbit
Summary: For the "DHARMA camp" prompt on the Lost bingo card at 1_million_words. Ben has one final walk around the DHARMA camp the night before the Purge; the Man in Black thinks of how he has managed to manipulate Ben to carry out his work.





	Flattering Child, You Shall Know Me, See Why In Shadow I Hide

Ben walks through the DHARMA village, taking one last look at his childhood home, at the school where he and Annie had once played together, at the Goodspeeds’ house where Ethan peeks out from behind a curtain, giving Ben an excited thumbs up when he sees him.

Even though he’s been involved with the planning for weeks, it’s still hard for him to believe that in 24 hours from now, all the inhabitants of this place, save a handpicked few, will be gone, wiped out in what his new people were already referring to as the Purge.

Ben thinks of the look of excitement he had seen on Ethan’s face, and although he has encouraged it, has played on Ethan’s hatred of DHARMA’s experiments which he blames for Amy’s death when she was unable to carry her longed-for second child to term, there is a part of him that wonders whether Ethan can really feel so little when it comes to the impending death of his father. He also wonders whether to ask himself this question makes him a hypocrite; Ben has known for a long time that he feels nothing regarding the death of Roger Linus, unless if anything a relief that he will never again have to listen to Roger’s drunken accusations of Ben killing his mother. Yet Horace Goodspeed had been the closest thing to a father that Ben had ever known, had been the one to try and intervene with Roger when he thought Roger was going too far, and Ben knew that a part of him would regret that it had to be this way. 

They had to go. Their experiments, which had led to what his former people referred to as the Incident, had caused a lot of problems on the island; Ben firmly believes that they are responsible for the fertility problems which only started in the aftermath of the Incident. He, Ethan, Danny Pickett who lost his father in the Incident for which he has never been able to forgive the then-head of security LaFleur, they all know it has to be done, and they are the ones to do it. Ben had known exactly how to manipulate those of his people who were joining him, to make them realise they had to participate.

He pushes aside the second thoughts he was beginning to have. Tomorrow’s going to be the beginning of his new life, and Ben’s ready. 

 

Silly boy, The Man in Black thinks as he watches Benjamin Linus take his final walk around the DHARMA compound. He really thinks he’s the one convincing all these fools to do his bidding. Little does he realise, he’s actually doing mine.

All it had taken was a few visits to him in the form of Emily Linus, full of tears, to convince Ben that his participation in the Purge was the right thing to do. He’d even appeared to young Ethan in the form of Amy, and Danny Pickett in the form of his father, played on their grief, to convince them to follow Benjamin, although Benjamin was unaware of this.

For a moment The Man in Black pictures Jacob’s face when he finds out that so many of his candidates have gone, annihilated at the hands of those they call Hostiles. Jacob will know, of course, that it was his work that led to this, but he will be unable to do anything about it. And he will bring more candidates, of course, but the Man in Black will find some way to take care of them as well.

He will watch tomorrow as events play out, as the Linus boy thinks it is all his idea. And he already has ideas for Benjamin once he is with his new people, to sow the seeds of discord between him and Charles Widmore. He still has work to do.


End file.
